Episode 11.3

Introduction

The War of Emperium: Second Edition (or WoE:SE or just SE) is the latest evolution of this popular PVP feature of RO. Two new realms are added, 'Valfreyja' realm of the Arunafeltz Republic, and the 'Nithafjoll' realm of the Schwarzwald Republic. The Schwartzwald castles are designed to mimic the styles of Lighthalzen and Juno, and the Arunafeltz castles are designed to mimic the various areas on the Arunafeltz region.

This new version of WoE places much more emphasis on defensive battle tactics, and is very different from the first version. The highlight of the new system are the new maps, which unlike the old system, does away with warp portals, with the whole castle appearing as one single map area. New options have been given to defenders to allow them to have an easier time to defend a castle of this style.

Table of Contents

WoE:SE Mechanics

SE mechanics function very similar to that of the original WoE mechanics. Players cannot be knocked back, and physical and magical damage is reduced. Skills such as assumptio and basilica cannot be cast within siege castles. Unlike the original WoE, the skill Leap is disabled in SE.

New Features

Taking a fortress in SE is different from the original WoE. Several obsticals exist in which must be dealt with before you can capture a fortress.

The Fortress Gate: The fortress gate is a barricade that prevents players from progressing in a castle. This looks like the other barricades except they cannot be attacked or damaged. Skills cannot be cast over this barricade. The fortress gate will vanish once both Guardian Stones are destroyed.

Guardian Stones: In each SE castle there exists two guardian stones located in different rooms prior to the fortress gate. Guardian stones will summon guardians over time, and as long as at least one of the guardian stones remains standing, the fortress gate will prevent attackers from progressing into your fort.

Guardian Soldiers: The guardian soldiers of SE are considerably stronger than those of the original WoE. There no longer exists Bow Guardians, only powerful sword guardians. These guardians are similar in power to the ones found in Volcano Thor, though these guardians do not use any offensive skills. If the guardian stone that summoned the guardian is killed, the guardian will die.

Barricades: If the attackers manage to breach the fortress gate, a series of barricades exist to slow the attackers advance to the emperium. A barricade is a impassible barrier, but it can be cast over by both the defending or attacking teams. A barricade consists of 4-8 blocks that take a lot of damage, and only when all the blocks are destroyed can players pass through.

Link Flags: Link flags improve the mobility and tactical advantage of the defending team by providing a way for the defenders to quickly and easily move to any point in the castle. Throughout the fort are flags, which can take players to the emperium room, and within the emperium room is a row of flags that can take the defending players back to various points in the fort.

Guardian Stones

Within a castle there is one Emperium and two Guardian Stones. The Guardian stones main purpose is to prevent enemies from advancing. These Guardian Stones are the first line of defense for a castle, and if they can be protected, a perfect defense is possible and attackers will be unable to enter the interior of the castle. The location of these Guardian Stones are usually referred to as defense points or strategic points.

While alive, the invulnerable fortress gate prevent players from progressing. This gate vanishes once both Guardian Stones are destroyed. The guardian stones, unlike the Emperium are vulnerable to normal attack and supportive skills. If destroyed, a guardian stone can be rebuilt after 5 minutes have passed by bringing it the correct items. If both guardian stones are restored, the fortress gate will again reactivate. Note that even though the gate will block access to the fort proper, enemies that have already passed this barrier when it is restored are still able to destroy the other barricades and potentially destroy the castles emperium.

While the stretegic importance of holding the guardian stones cannot be overstated, the guardian stones also provide an additional role of summoning guardian soldiers. These guardians are similar in strength to those found in the Volcano Thor dungeon, and are quite powerful. The number of guardians that will be summoned depends on the defense rating of the castle, and killed guardians will automatically be resummoned after a period of time. If the guardian stone is destroyed, the guardian soldiers that it had summoned will be destroyed as well.

Any player on the defending guild team can repair a destroyed guardian stone presuming they bring the correct items. Allied guild players are unable to restore guardian stones. A guardian stone cannot be repaired until 5 minutes has passed since it was destroyed. If both guardian stones become destroyed, the main gate will not be restored until both stones are repaired, but having one active will still allow guardians to be summoned (though only half as many as if two guardian stones were active).

A guardian stone can be repaired by bringing the following items.

Stone (30)

Oridecon (1)

Elunium (1)

Blue Gemstone (5)

Red Gemstone (5)

Yellow Gemstone (5)

When re-assembling a guardian stone, each piece needs to be assembled in the proper order. The Stone, Elunium, and then the Oridecon must be arranged in that order. Then, you must place the gemstones based on a visual effect. Pay attention, the stone will make a red, blue, or green aura similar to the sage ground skills, and you must insert the corresponding color gem (the green violent gale effect uses the yellow gemstone). You must match the gemstones up to seven times.

If you assembled all the pieces correctly, the Guardian Stone will re-appear and begin summoning guardians immediately. If a step was performed incorrectly, you'll lose 10 of your stones and 2 of each gemstone and have to start over again.

Barricades

The Barricades are the second line of defense in a castle should the Guardian Stones fall. If the Guardian Stones are both destroyed the enemy will then be able to infiltrate the castle, so these barricades provide additional defense.

In all SE castles there are three sets of barricades. These barricades create a line of impassible ground, preventing all players from passing. A barricade is made up of a series of pieces, ranging from 4-8 blocks. All of these pieces must be destroyed before players are allowed to pass. Unlike the emperium, barricades can be targeted by regular offensive and supportive skills (such as heal).

Destroyed barricade blocks cannot be replaced by the defending team while War of Emperium is currently active. When you first capture a fort, the barricades are not automatically installed, but the guild leader can choose to install them at any time by bringing the required items to the barricade (a control NPC exists next to each barricade). Only the guild leader is able to install barricades.

Barricades must be repaired in order, starting with the one closest to the emperium. When a guild leader wishes to rebuild a barricade, he'll have to bring the following items.

Trunk (30)

Steel (10)

Emvertarcon (10)

Oridecon (5)

Each component needs to be added to the barricade in a random order. You'll have to pay attention to the specific text que's in order to properly rebuild the barricade. If it describes the support frame as being damaged, use the trunks. If the gates looks like its endurance needs to be reinforced, use the oridecon. If the gate appears to have numerous cracks, use the steel. If the gate needs to be held together properly, use the emvertarcon.

Once you use all the pieces correctly, the barricade will appear. In most cases if you use the incorrect items the rebuilding process will end then and you will have to restart. If you use the trunks incorrectly to reinforce the barricade instead of oridecon (and possibly several other combinations), you may lose some of the items.

Link Flags

Within the emperium room, there exists a row of Link Flags designed to provide easier navigation throughout the castle fort. There are 10 flags in total within the room, each one named that can transport the defending guild members to various points into the castle.

Scattered throughout the castle, as well as directly outside the castle forts also exist link flags. All these link flags teleport the defending guild directly into the emprium room. In combination with the emperium room flags, the defending guild can easily enter and deploy to any point in the fort that they are needed.

Only the castle owners can use the flags, they cannot be used by allied guilds.

The emperium room Link Flags identify target locations by refering to them as zones. The following describes how these zones are arranged.

Guardian Stones: Takes you to the room containing the guardian stones. Always on Link Flag 01.

Zone 1: Referes to the area preceeding the Fortress Gate. Zones 1-1 and 1-2 are usually between the entrance and the guardian stones, and 1-3 and 1-4 include the area near the entrance between the entrance and the Fortress Gate.

Zone 2: The area surrounding the First Barricade. Zones 2-1 and 2-2 take you to the area in front of the First Barricade, and 2-3 and 2-4 take you between the First Barricade and the Second.

Zone 3: The area between the Second and Third Barricades. Third zones usually only have 2 teleport areas.

Convenience Center: A portion of the castle that only guild members can access. This area contains the guild manager NPC, as well as the guild Kafra should one be employed. In the future, this area will have NPC's related to the creation of the new godly items. Always on the last Link Flag.

The following is a common arrangement of zone teleports based on the link flag name. The flags themselves will tell you these location names. Note that some forts may have a different arrangement of zones.

LF-01: First and Second Guardian Stones.

LF-02: Zones 1-1 and 1-2.

LF-03: Zones 1-3 and 1-4.

LF-04: Zones 2-1 and 2-2.

LF-05: Zones 2-3 and 2-4.

LF-06: Zones 3-1 and 3-2.

LF-07: Zones 1-1, 2-1, and 3-1.

LF-08: Zones 1-2, 2-2, and 3-2.

LF-09: Zones 1-4 and 2-4.

LF-10: Convenience Center.

Guardians

The guardians in SE are considerably stronger than their WoE counterparts. Gone are the Bow Guardians and Master Guardians, only the Soldier Guardians remain. These guardians perform roughly on par as the sword guardians which appear in Volcano Thor. They share the same attack power, movement speed, and attack speed, though in siege the guardians do not use any of the skills the thor guardians use.

Unlike original WoE guardians, these guardian soldiers are considered boss type monsters. This means that the guardians can detect and attack hidden players, and invulnerable to many types of status effects. Because these guardians are boss type, they are not actually counted as guardian type. This means that the Mi Gao and Elder cards which have effects that counter guardians have no effect on SE guardians.

Once WoE begins, the guardian stones must be commanded to begin producing guardians before they appear. The guild leader can order the production of guardians through the fortress manager located near the link flags. Once production of guardians is started, as long as the guardian stones are alive they will slowly summon guardians over time. Higher economy rating of the castle will improve the initial production of guardian soldiers. If the guardian stone that summoned the guardian is destroyed however, all the guardians that it created will be destroyed.

While on their own the guardians are fearsome, they can be aided by supportive skills, including blessing, increase agility, and the frightening Eske. When combatting guardians tough, its key to know that the guardians normally move rather slowly; one should be able to outrun one with increase agi. Guardians won't switch targets unless they are hit, so a person could continue to kite them around for a good length of time. Skills such as Eske and Increase AGI can be dispelled by a sage or scholar The guardians also have no ranged attacks, and are vulnerable to fiber lock and ankle snares to stop its movement. They do not use shield reflect like the Thor's ones do, so they can also be attacked using powerful skills such as Guillotine Fist.

The initial number of guardians summoned by a castle depends on the defensive rating of the castle. The stones will also summon up to 5 additional guardians over the durration of the war. The minimum number of guardians that exist for a guardian stone is 2. If the number of guardians drops below 2, the guardian stone will replace them.
The following shows the initial number of guardians produced by the guardian stone. Note that this is PER guardian stone, meaning a fully operational castle will have twice this.

0 - 30 Defense Rating: 2 Guardians.

31 - 50 Defense Rating: 3 Guardians.

51 - 70 Defense Rating: 4 Guardians.

71 - 100 Defense Rating: 5 Guardians.

In addition to the initial guardians, the stone will produce additional guardians over time. Each stone will create a new guardian after 5, 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes. The first guardian stone will announce the creation of new guardians to the map when it occurs.

If a castle has 71+ defense rating and has been defended for a full 60 minutes, the maximum number of guardian soldiers a castle could have would be 20.